Today Janesville, Tomorrow...Beloit!

Back in 2012, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin, brought a memorable guffaw out of the vice-president during an exchange in their debate that touched on America's role in Afghanistan. Ryan went on a lengthy explanation of how, when winter comes to the Hindu Kush, it is very cold and it snows a lot. This interchange was rather conclusive proof that Paul Ryan should stick to his chosen field of charlatanism -- namely, the domestic economy -- where he can fake it with some level of authority. As was once said about partisanship, Paul Ryan should stop at the water's edge because he is even money to hit himself in the head with a fish, fall in, and drown.

"You need to get from your intelligence community, the defense community, especially when we have troops in harm's way, what's going on," he said. "The primary job of the commander in chief is to keep the country safe." Republicans were glad that Obama was "taking the fight to ISIS" with the airstrikes the U.S. has been conducting with allies in Iraq and Syria, Ryan said, but added he worried about the involvement by the president in the effort. "I worry he's going to nickel and dime and micromanage the military, be an armchair general," Ryan said. "Give the military the mission, and then stand out of their way and let them do their job."

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Because I have been told, even by putative liberals, that Paul Ryan is a serious man of ideas, I hesitate to point out to him -- and to the Newsmax scribe assigned to fluff him -- that the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the way you can know this is that he recently told our fighter jets to go blow stuff up and, at present, they are blowing stuff up. He is not an "armchair general." The actual generals answer to him. Paul Ryan gets to blow off steam to Newsmax because he is an armchair general or, more accurately, a Monday-morning quarterback. If Paul Ryan, man of deep thoughts, has a problem with civilian control of the military, he should just say so. Or, as Joe Biden once put it: